Pretty Dichotomy

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

Sometimes I think we never learn to seek God. We wait for God to give us an emotional experience to lean on and when our emotions are not running at 5,000%, we think there is something wrong with us. 

For me, it’s easier to see and depend on God at the lowest points in my life. When I do badly on a test, I’m able to say “My identity doesn’t rest in that!” or when I sin for the billionth time in one day I confidently say “I’m forgiven!” When our world is dark, we can clearly see the light of the savior. 

But what about when our world is full of light? What about when I get a 100 on a test? What about when I overcome a struggle with sin for like 5 minutes probably? When things start to go well and the blessings pile in, I start to think I can do this life thing on my own. I start to think I deserve good things. Somehow, in my mind, I connect how well my life is going to how good my spiritual life is. 

I make the mistake of believing that God makes my life go well when my heart is the right place and that something is wrong when things aren’t going so well, but that’s not always true. The truth is that even at our best moments, we are in utterly desperate need of a savior. 

The gap between how much Christ did for us and what we can ever think to do for him is too great to be overcome. Seeking God means actively pursuing to have a personal relationship with him and working everyday to become more and more like Christ. 

So what how do we do that? 

This verse from Matthew 7 gives us some ideas: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” This verse gives the perfect step-by-step process of seeking God: 

1. Asking represents our recognition of our need of God. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts through God’s word and our experiences to give us a desire to seek God. Asking for God’s help in seeking him is the first step. He will give you the strength you need. 

2. Just asking for motivation isn’t enough. Seeking refers to the actual actions we take to follow the will of God. No, our works do not save us, but we still have a responsibility to live according to God’s law and follow him unconditionally. 

3. The knocking part of this verse always confused me as a kid, but turns out it actually refers to perseverance. Seeking is a continuous process. We don’t just get to say “God give me holiness” and then stop there. We have to develop godly habits, which is a very difficult thing. Asking and seeking will not have a long term effect without knocking. The last part of the verse is our comfort and God’s promise. 

When we work to do these 3 things, we will be given the strength to do it. We will be given what we ask for, we will find what we seek, and the door to a relationship with God will be opened to us. God not only promises to be found by us when we seek him, but wants us to come to him.

Ladies, don’t sell yourself short. It is worthwhile to work to pursue God.

1. Exhibit integrity – A person is said to have integrity if what they say and what they do are rooted in the same set of core values.

2. Don’t speak badly of others – If you speak badly about others to a friend, the chances are you’ll also speak badly about them. Hence, they are likely to be hesitant in what they share with you.

3. Be an optimist – This doesn’t mean burying your head in the sand. It meanschoosing not to dwell on the negatives, and actively looking for the positives.

4. Make the effort to be helpful – Life is so much sweeter if you’re thoughtful and kind – and we rarely forget someone who’s caring and warm.

5. Set some goals and have some ambition - This is an extremely contagious quality. Not only will you achieve higher goals for yourself, you’ll give hope to others, and inspire them to try.

6. Seek to be compassionate and understanding – All of us face battles and experience hard times. Empathising with others when life is tough helps to ease their burden and renew their inner spark.

7. Believe in, love and respect yourself - If you don’t accept, respect and love yourself, then you’ll send out vibes that you’re inadequate. However, it you love, believe in and treat yourself well then it’s likely that others will treat you that way, too.

8. Persist until you succeed – Although ambition is important, it is not enough. You have to persevere if you’re going to succeed. So when you stumble or fall down just get up and start again. Then keep on going till you finally succeed.

9. Be open minded and willing to learn - If you’re closed in your thinking and set in your ways then you’ll never discover a different, better way .. and you’ll close yourself off to other possibilities.

Before getting this message, I did NOT know there used to be a reprise of Dear Theodosia so now I’m just an emotional wreck. 

PSA: We have got to read the Word of God, friends.

While I think the article above almost hit the question of “Why Bible Engagement is Down” on the head, it failed to address the hugest issues of the lack of desire to personally read His Word in many Christian communities and the comfort of not wanting to be convicted and turned around from our sins (another blog post on that later). I’m going to keep it real and specific in this first blog post here- many of us don’t desire to read His Word. 

Many of us don’t desire to wake up 10 minutes earlier to read the book of Ephesians or go to sleep 15 minutes later to delve into some of Exodus. Many of us only desire to get our questions answered about how to deal with our personal situations (no shade here) but don’t desire to know the God and know the Word that gives you instructions on how to handle literally every life situation (I don’t even think I’m exaggerating here- the Bible is some amazing stuff). 

It isn’t enough to crack it open once a week in the church pews or only when you need to ask God a favor. It isn’t enough for us ladies at 31Women to try to answer your questions (many of which could honestly be answered through knowing the Word and the God that you serve) and it isn’t enough to reblog a few cute Hillsong United song lyrics here or there. We can’t built a relationship with God on crumbs when He is offering Himself as the Bread of Life- through His Word- for all of us to partake. 

I know that I’m going hard on this but I truly think the reason why so many of us can be in the Church and still not know God is because we don’t know His voice. We don’t know His voice because many of us find the Bible boring- wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. We don’t know His voice because many of us find it hard to set aside time. There’s no simple solution to this besides making time. If you can make time for your boyfriend or girlfriend, if you can make time to scour tumblr, if you can make time to make it to level 398 of Candy Crush, you can make the time to seek out the God, King, Ruler, and Sustainer of the Universe through His word. 

The truth of the matter is that we don’t know His voice because we don’t prioritize it. 

I have a simple solution to this quandry- make it a priority. That’s it- that’s all! There’s your “get-Bible-knowledge-quick!” pyramid scheme… 

Only it’s not a scheme. 

Jesus says in Matthew 4:4 (ESV): But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Believe Him when He says this. Believe that the Word of God is necessary and powerful.   

For the Word desires to be enveloped by the sons and daughters of God. And if you want to have an unwavering faith, you need to dedicate yourself to reading it. You can skip a lot of things- like honestly flossing twice a day or making your bed every morning or reading the instructions on how to cook microwaveable dinners- but you cannot skip reading the Word of God and still think that you can have a growing relationship with God. John 1:1 says that “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. We have the presence of God dwelling with us at the tips at our fingertips- and many of us still think that we can’t figure out how to have a relationship with God. 

But we can figure it out! I can give you five steps to daily Bible reading right now: 

1. Open your Bible. (on your phone, in print, either way is great. I recommend NKJV or ESV translations for the best laymen accuracy.)

2. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (”my God- I ask that you send send your Spirit to lead, guide, and convict me as I read. let your breath transform the message that I see. let your mission play out through your Word.”)

3. Read. (perhaps start with Romans, then Galatians, then Philippians, then the Gospels, then James, then Habakkuk, then Ecclesiastes, then Psalms, and then Proverbs. those books can and will give you the running start that you need to become more accustomed to reading the Word.) 

4. Ask questions. (“what does this passage mean- let me google it and find commentaries explaining it…” “how do I/should I feel about this verse… it’s giving me a lot of emotions that I’m sure other people could relate to.” “why would God lead me to this verse right here? is there something in my life that He is preparing me for?” “how is it so easy to relate to Bible characters literally 2,000 years ago going through the same exact things as me?” “why do I feel so convicted here- why is God reworking that particular part of my life through this passage?”)

5. Trust, rinse, and repeat. (trust in your God that He is eager to watch you grow in His word. rinse yourself of ideas that the Bible is too boring to read (it isn’t and its Author is not). repeat and repeat and repeat, knowing that the Word of God is the lens that we Christians should view this broken-but-redeemed world. whether it’s the painful cry of Habakkuk in his worries and struggles or the passionate honesties of Paul as a prisoner of Christ or the humble accomplishments of Moses as the leader of God’s people- repeat, knowing that the people of the Bible are no different from you and me. if “these are the days of Elijah”, then these are the days of you and I and the work of God through His faithful servants.) 

Make it a daily necessity to engage with the Word. Make it as necessary as brushing your teeth and putting on deodorant. Make it as vital as eating food three times a day and drinking fluids to keep you hydrated. It seems daunting, scary, and a little impossible- but if God can take a simple wretch like me and give me new life through His incredible Word, God can do the same for you.

(and you.. and you… and YOU!) 

We can’t skimp on the Word of God anymore- not when His Word is as powerful and majestic and mysterious as this. Not when His Word is probably one of the most beautiful texts out there- with heart wrenching poetry and relatable parables and unending praise and the chronicles of the Israelites and light sarcasm and on-point analogies and raw, real honesty. 

Not when His Word was written for us and our imperfections and His Son was inscribed for us and our mistakes. 

Read your Bible. Know the God you serve. Know the story of Love. 

I’m not going to say that it doesn’t take work, because it does. I’m not going to say it doesn’t take effort to read your Bible in the morning instead of quickly turning to the tumblr app to catch up with your dashboard because it certainly does. But soon (when you have put in the effort to receive it- reading the Bible won’t just fall into your lap… you have to desire it and actively seek it out every day that you take in breath), you’ll be able to answer people when they question why you have the hope that you have in you. 

And soon, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the encouragement of the Christian brothers and sisters around you, you’ll be able to experience Jesus as He truly is through the living Word of God.

As someone who has 3 close INTJ relationships in their life, I thought I would talk about the characteristics of them that go against their stereotype/what they wouldn’t tell you about.

They are surprisingly gentle. Now grant it, they are probably only so towards selected humans/people they somewhat care about/like, but still. I guarantee at least 90% of MBTI nerds such as myself don’t associate the word “gentle” with INTJ’s. Like everything about the male INTJ is gentle. The way he touches things/me, his body language (if not surrounded by people), his tone of voice and sometimes even the things he says. The two females also have the physical gentleness about them. When they’re not running into things, they can look quite graceful/put together.

They can be extremely considerate. Really though, for a type that prefers thinking over feeling and has Te in the auxiliary position in their stacking, they really do think about the people they care about’s well being more than most know. Though anybody close to an at least decently healthy INTJ has probably seen this. Part of their goal in establishing any sort of human relationship is to make sure that persons physical and emotional needs are met, but in a more different way than SJ’s do. Every time I mention I’m sick to any of the three I am close with, they immediately ask me what my symptoms are and diagnosing me on the spot and looking up any way they can make me feel better. If I am emotionally distraught, they want to know why right away so they can try to help any problems I have or cure any bad emotion I feel (they may not always be the best with the emotional stuff, but it’s their effort that really counts and cheers me up even if their actual words didn’t do the trick). They will purposefully change the way they’ll say something to be more nice/less intimidating because they know it might upset me if they say it in their natural INTJ blunt way. Of course, they don’t compromise what the original intent of their statement was, they just find a new way of saying it. Basically, they will do things for you they would never do in a normal setting if they care for you and your attention. I could add even more to this but it is getting quite long soooo moving on.

They can be some of the most loyal people in your life. This trait is more widely known I think but I figured I would still include it. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it but I can be insecure in some of my friendships, always wondering if they truly enjoy being around me or if they’ll just randomly stop talking to me. However, any time any sort of doubt has crept into my INTJ friendships, it usually disappears as fast as it appeared. I know they would not waste their time with me if they did not enjoy my company and I know without a shadow of a doubt that they wouldn’t abandon me (unless I did something unspeakably awful). The loyalty they have is like a cool, calm wave over me and my anxiety that I have with all relationships in my life. My INTJ’s are always there for me in some way.

They are surprisingly….affectionate. There is this whole idea that INTJ’s despise physical contact. Well if it’s from someone they do not trust/like, then yes. They probably don’t like it. All three have told me they don’t do hugs. And actually, in public most won’t even hug me (they’ll tolerate it if I hug them though). However, in a more private setting, they are actually very touchy (maybe it’s the Se?). The one I have a more romantic relationship with is super cuddly. And I think for all three, physical touch is high on their list of love languages. They’re not cuddly in the F way, but they’ll just randomly be assertive and initiate some sort of physical touching whether it just be leaning on my shoulder or full on cuddling. But don’t talk about it with them. All three dislike talking about affection and emotions in general (but they will if they haveeee to, it’s actually quite cute I think). I will say I think they are less physically affectionate with family. First and foremost they are the most affectionate with lovers and second with friends. All three aren’t too “huggy” with their parents/siblings.

They’re super open minded generally. They will try most things once, however, they are usually skeptical. Most people see them being close minded, but on the contrary actually. This is more of a trait found in healthy/developed INTJ’s so don’t expect to see this in your 12 year old INTJ brother. Actually, most of the things on this list are found in more developed INTJ’s. Anyways, the ones I know will always be down to try something new if I can give them a logical reasoning for wanting to do it. And sometimes, they’ll just do it because they know it’ll make me happy. Some coaxing needs to be done sometimes, but since they want to be knowledgeable about all experiences, they’ll usually want to do/try whatever it is. They do put their foot down on some things though. This paragraph should have been prefaced with saying you can not make an INTJ do anything it does not want to do. <–important. They will leave you stone cold and alone if you try to force them into anything they say no to.

I finally see what it was all about. This whole story is about a God that won’t give up. There are ups and there are seriously downs but he never leaves.

If He never left mankind from Genesis to Revelation, I know that means he won’t leave me where I am. He is ever constant. Through misunderstanding, frustration, fear, and tragedy, He does not run away.

When you look at the Bible as a whole, you see it. You see the heart of a Father that says in your beginning I’ll be here, and no matter how you end, here I’ll be.

[ quick switch: ISxJ | INxJ | IxTP | IxFP | ExTJ | ENxP | ExFJ | ESxP ]

(excerpts from Was That Really Me? by Naomi Quenk)

Important Features of Dominant Introverted Intuition

Introverted Intuitive types are the most intellectually independent of the types. They have a theory to explain everything, prefer innovative solutions to established ones, and are adept at seeing situations from an unusual perspective. Their skill at taking a very broad, long-range view of things contributes to their reputation as visionaries. Regardless of whether their auxiliary judging preference is Thinking or Feeling, their dominant Intuition tends to be sharp, quick, and often uncannily correct. It is as if they have antennae that enable them to detect things long before other people do.

People often count on INTJs and INFJs for insightful analyses and forthright judgments. They are adept at appropriately discounting distracting details and homing in on the essential meaning of complex, confusing situations.

Introverted Intuitive types report being puzzled by others’ perception of them as rigid and intractable.This perception may result from their tendency to express their views directly and forcefully.This is especially true for INTJs. Misinterpretation of their forthright communication style as inflexibility may make others reluctant to present alternatives or argue their own point of view. But, as described in Chapter 3, dominant Perceiving types are unlikely to be wedded to their decisions, since they give greater weight to data (perceptions) than to conclusions (judgments). Experience bears this out for the most part. INTJs and INFJs readily modify their incorrect conclusions when they receive convincing contradictory new information.

The spiritual, sometimes mystical, bent of Introverted Intuitive types has been frequently noted.At the very least, they seem to be aware of subtle cues or nuances long before others notice them. INFJs are especially sensitive to unexpressed anger and conflict, whose presence is usually denied by others.This contributes to the sense of separateness from others that many Introverted Intuitive types report, which may lead them to doubt their own mental stability.

Introverted Intuitive types, especially INTJs, readily see the big picture in crisis situations and know how to direct others to take the most effective action.

One of the few organizational things I ever do.

INTP

INFP

INTJ

INFJ

ENTP (in the making)

ENFP

ENTJ (in the making)

ENFJ

ISTP (in the making)

ISFP (in the making)

ISTJ (in the making)

ISFJ

ESTP

ESFP

ESTJ

Tiny Tim

 Rationals

Artisans

Guardians

Idealists

BONUS EEG!

ENFJ are pretty easy to embarrassed. On the other hand INTP’s region are pretty hard to activate. Generally speaking, that region is quite dark. But when they do get embarrassed, oh boy, it floods over to the other neighbouring regions! It even effected the region that are responsible for dexterity (that explained why they become klutzy af when they get embarrassed).

‘Is that a thing?’ for ‘does that exist?’

Deliberate omission of grammar to show e.g. defeatedness, bewilderment, fury. As seen in Tumblr’s ‘what is this I don’t even’.

‘Because [noun]’. As in ‘we couldn’t have our picnic in the meadow because wasps.’

Use of kerning to indicate strong bewilderment, i.e. double-spaced letters usually denoting ‘what is happening?’ This one is really interesting because it doesn’t really translate well to speech. It’s something people have come up with that uses the medium of text over the internet as a new way of communicating instead of just a transcript of speech or a quicker way to send postal letters.

Just the general playing around with sentence structure and still being able to be understood. One of my favourites of these is the ‘subject: *verbs* / object: *is verb*’ couplet, as in:

Beekeeper: *keeps bees* Bees: *is keep*

or

Me: *holds puppy* Puppy: *is hold*

First, let’s get rid of the myth that INTJs don’t have emotions. We do. We feel deeply and strongly.

The problem is that INTJs have tertiary Fi. Fi is introverted, so that’s in general a block to showing emotion. But since it’s tertiary, when INTJs do try to express them it comes out wrong, especially since their Te is so used to expressing concepts in logical terms. This means that people often don’t understand what an INTJ is trying to say. The frustration of not connecting causes a sort of negative feedback. The INTJ thinks, “Well that didn’t go well. I’m definitely not going to put myself through that again.” So they don’t.

Also, because of Fi, INTJs can really only deal with and internalize emotions on their own. No amount of someone else saying, “It’ll be okay” will convince the INTJ. They need to figure it out on their own. So why bother people with it? It’ll only cause them worry on top of the INTJ’s.

More developed INTJs will realize the value of catharsis. But still, the emotions are only shown to people who are very close to the INTJ. There’s nothing worse than false sympathy from people you don’t really know, and that’s why to the majority of the population, an INTJ seems pretty emotionless.